Root parasites form a distinct feature of the Cape Flora, and 
besides several species of Tliesium we were lucky enough to find a 
brilliant scarlet Harveya on the slopes of Table Mountain. As we 
approach the precipitous rocks which separate so sharply the 
mountain slopes from the flat top of Table Mountain we find near 
the water courses numerous plants of Drosera cistijlora, while near 
the rocks especially where there is dripping water the presence of 
Fossoiiibronia and Anthoccros shews that we are approaching 
regions of greater rainfall and more permanent moisture. These 
signs were very noticeable on the excursion to the top of Table 
Mountain, where the boggy stretches abound in numerous 
Cyperaceae, while the banks of the streams feeding the large 
reservoirs were rich in ferns, including Todea africana, and the rocks 
around the water courses were covered in sheltered situations with 
filmy ferns, Hymenophyllum tunbridgense and II. rarum being the 
most conspicuous. This uppermost zone of vegetation is not so 
typical of the South Western Flora as the plants on the slopes of 
the mountain, where the rainfall is less heavy, but it adds greatly 
to the fascination which the Cape Peninsula has for every botanist 
interested in plant formations. 
Comparing the flora of the Cape Peninsula with that of other 
portions of South Africa, one cannot fail to be impressed by the 
striking difference between the vegetations of the Eastern and the 
Western Coast regions. For while the East Coast possesses a 
more luxuriant vegetation and a greater number of trees, entire 
families of plants such as the Proteaceae, Restionaceae and 
Ericaceae which are dominant in the Western flora are practically 
absent from the Eastern region. On the other hand there are 
in the Cape flora no representatives of the Apocynaceae and 
Acanthaceae, of which considerable numbers are dispersed through 
the remainder of extra-tropical South Africa. These facts seem 
only explicable by the supposition that we have in the South 
Western region the remainder of an ancient flora formerly spread 
over a much wider area of South Africa and which has been driven 
Westward and Southward by an immigration of other forms from 
the North. A few Proteaceae such as Faurea saligna and some 
species of Frotca remain in the central Plateau of South Africa as the 
hardy and scattered remnants of the more ancient flora persisting 
among the newer arrivals. The cause of this Westward migration 
of plants requires still to be elucidated and the former connection, if 
any, of this ancient Western Flora with that of Australia, with 
